The Red River of the North begins its flow near Breckenridge, MN. This river flows north some 545 miles through Winnipeg, Canada and eventually into the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg. This river forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota.

The French, who originally discovered the area in the early 18th century, dubbed it Le Grandes Fourches because of the beauty of this spot where the two rivers forked. The name was later anglicized to Grand Forks in 1870 when the US government first set up a post office there.

Across the Red River from Grand Forks, in west central Polk County, lies Grand Forks' sister city East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The first white resident of East Grands Forks was William C. Nash who built a cabin along the river in 1869. Nash waited for the flood of settlers that he expected would soon follow to buy land in the fertile valley.

Though there were probably a few settlers living in the area at the time, the US Census of 1870 returned a population of zero for Polk County. In 1871 some Norwegian families from SE Minnesota moved into the area of Polk County which lies along the Red River. As word of this fertile valley spread through Canada, Canadians of Scotch Descent from South Manitoba began to move in. They originally went to the area around Fargo, North Dakota and Moorhead, Minnesota where the prime land of the valley was said to be located. Fargo lies about 60 miles to the south of Grand Forks. Upon their arrival there they discovered this land had already been claimed so they were forced to move north into Polk County.

Settlers continued to move into the area throughout the 1870s. After the Manitobans and Scandinavians settled there, word of the open land spread into eastern Canada. This led to a large influx of Canadians of Irish and French descent who moved into Polk County from Ontario in the decade from 1875-1885. Included in this last group were all of the families covered in this history.

Before the railroad most supplies and other necessities were shipped from Fargo, ND by the Kittson shipping line that had been started by Norman Kittson. In 1873 the railroad was completed from St. Paul, Minnesota to Crookston in Polk County. At this time settlements began to sprout up around Crookston, the county seat of Polk County. Crookston lies to the southeast of East Grand Forks.

The financial crisis that hit in 1873 led to cessation of the railroad being built. It was not restarted until 1875 when the railroad turned north toward Fishers Landing. The railroad did not reach East Grand Forks until February 1880. It was then that East Grand Forks became a boomtown.

The railroad workers and various other people that the railroad brought in, injected a life into the rural community. This led to the construction of many businesses along Demers Avenue, the main street in East Grand Forks. East Grand Forks status as a boomtown however was short lived. Later that same year the railroad extended across the Red River to Grand Forks. This took much of the steam out of the growth of East Grand Forks. Meanwhile Grand Forks became the major cultural and business center of what was then considered the northwest.

St. Michael's Catholic Church in Grand Forks was first organized in 1877 to meet the religious needs of a growing Catholic population that had moved into the area during the 1870's. In the earliest days of the church they met wherever they could until a chapel was built in 1881. Two years later this was replaced by a brick church that at the time was the largest in what later became the State of North Dakota.

This church was destroyed by a tornado that hit in 1887. It was soon rebuilt but only lasted 20 years before being burned to the ground in a 1907 fire. In 1907 another church replaced it at the cost of \$80,000. This church still stands today. It was at St. Michael's where both the Enrights and O'Connors attended church in the early years. Sacred Heart Church in East Grand Forks opened in 1893.

In the early days the only way to travel across the river to Grand Forks was by ferry. This is most likely how the Enright and Bushee families got across the river to attend church and conduct business in Grand Forks. These ferries were merely wooden rafts operated by a rope that spanned the width of the river.

In 1887, in an effort to accommodate foot and buggy traffic, two bridges were built which spanned the river. One was built on Demers Avenue, and the other a few blocks south on Division Street. This essentially put the ferries out of business. In 1903 the Division Street Bridge was replaced by the Washington Street bridge.

Determined to compete with their larger neighbor to the west, East Grand Forks turned to liquor sales. This took on added significance in 1890 when North Dakota gained statehood. At that time Grand Forks was forced to go dry as the new state constitution put prohibition in place. In an effort to get the people of Grand Forks to come across the bridge several saloons were built on Demers Avenue. This led to an influx of crime into the area, particularly prostitution.

Prostitution thrived in the area throughout the 1890s and early 1900's and East Grand Forks gained a reputation as what today would be called a party town. Police would simply look the other way. The reasons for this were twofold. One, because the ladies brought the young town business it would not otherwise have, and two, occasionally arrests would be made and fines levied to sweeten the young towns coffers. The Madames simply accepted this as cost of doing business.

Eventually as North Dakota dropped their prohibition order things began to settle down on the Minnesota side. By 1906 the prostitutes had been driven out of EGF by a police department which no longer looked the other way. The town was now more concerned about its reputation than it was about the business the ladies brought to town.

Throughout all of this Polk County was becoming a major force in the area of agriculture. While flooding of the river was quite common and sometimes tragic to the area residents, the receding waters left behind some of the most fertile soil in all of Minnesota.

While this soil was used to grow a variety of agricultural products, the major crops were wheat, potatoes, and sugar beets. The farming families who moved into the county in the 1870's and early 1880's began to build large farming operations that became the backbone of the local economy. The economy began to grow as more settlers moved into the area and soon industries began to appear on the Dakota side of the river. However even many of these were related to agriculture.

The two largest factories at the time were a sugar beet factory and a flour mill. The agricultural industry of the area led to the cereal "Cream of Wheat" being created in Grand Forks during the 1890's. It also led to Grand Forks becoming a major trading point for pioneers pushing further west into the Dakotas and beyond.

The fertile soil of the Red River Valley provided economic security not only for its residents but for the hundreds of migrant workers who came each summer to help work the land. By 1910 Polk County had become one of the leading agricultural centers in the entire state and the Red River Valley had gained national prominence as an agricultural center.

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